The launch of The Republic Project this morning delivers yet another blow to traditional music labels and their longstanding monopolization of the music industry. Serving as an online platform for artists to directly communicate and share their music with fans, it essentially allows musicians to bypass these record labels and act as their own distributors. News like this is always pleasing to me, primarily because I am in a band myself and the majority of our content is online but also because I love seeing bad things happen to the big guys.
One of the most interesting aspects of The Republic Project’s service is the emphasis they’ve decided to put on video. They have joined forces with digital camcorder producer Flip and plan on providing every participating band or artist with MiniHD camcorders in order to capture behind the scenes footage. It’s not enough to just hear your favorite band’s music anymore, we want to see them and interact with them through video. We live in a society where visual appeal is of the utmost importance and their attention to this detail may prove to be what separates them from other future start-ups.
I don’t necessarily know if The Republic Project will be a success but I do think it’s a major step in the right direction. The future of music undoubtedly lies in the use of online distribution and branding through socially interactive means. This ReadWriteWeb article points out the only drawback I can see with the Republic Project so far which is their early reliance on pre-ordered content. This really limits what bands without an already established substantial following can do so people like me may have a rougher time starting out than say Tim Myers. Excellent stuff though, nonetheless.
Filed under: Uncategorized, branding, content control, music, online video
